Tuesday, June 11, 2013

[527] Visits to Chongqing and Beijing conclude MTSU’s China tour Delegation returned Tuesday from seven-city tour to bolster international enrollment

BEIJING,
China — Middle Tennessee
State University concluded its delegation’s visit to China on Tuesday after meetings
at universities in Beijing and Chongqing and the main offices of the Confucius
Institute.

The stops at
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications; Communication University
of China in Beijing; and Hanban Confucius Institute’s global headquarters in
Beijing wrapped up the delegation’s seven-city agenda.

“We have been
buoyed by the support and awareness of MTSU from our colleagues and friends in
China,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. “As a result, we forged many meaningful
agreements and connections that will benefit our university.”

In Chongqing,
McPhee met with CUPT President Lin Jianhua to discuss future exchanges between
the two institutions. CUPT is one of the country’s top universities for
information science and technology.

Lin designated a
representative to attend MTSU this fall to pursue a graduate degree and begin
planning a future visit to Murfreesboro by officials from Chongqing. McPhee
also lectured to students about the advantages of international studies and
talked about opportunities for graduate-level learning at MTSU.

In Beijing,
state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, led the delegation to meet with Wang
Yongli, deputy-director general of Hanban. Wang helps oversee a network of more
than 350 Confucius Institutes in more than 100 countries.

Ketron, a 1976
graduate of MTSU, expressed strong support for the institute’s work on the Murfreesboro
campus in promoting Chinese language learning in Tennessee.

Ketron and the
delegation’s visit to the Communication University of China included a lunch
with faculty and administrators and a review of ongoing student and faculty
exchanges. CCU is ranked as the country’s No. 1 media education university and
has been called “the cradle of China’s broadcasting and television talents.”

Joining the
session at CCU was Zeny Sarabia-Panol, associate dean of MTSU’s College of Mass
Communication, who is teaching at the Beijing campus this summer.

MTSU has an
international enrollment of more than 700 full-time, degree-seeking students, a
16.5 percent increase over last year and a jump of almost 30 percent from
2011. The university has targeted higher international enrollment as a way
to diversify the MTSU campus and generate additional revenue.

The MTSU
delegation also renewed or established relationships with Shanghai Jiao Tong
University; Hangzhou Normal University; the Research Institute of Industrial
Design of Shunde; Guangxi University; and the Guangxi Botanical Garden of
Medicinal Plants. It also visited government officials in Guilin.